Attached Link: http://bradsdeals.com/dell-coupons-mid-4.html

I've been pricing computers for the last few months and just found a deal that I couldn't beat for a low end quad core computer. I wanted a quad core because Poser 7 rendering makes use of the chip's capability to nearly cut the time to render by a quarter compared to a standard single core chip. I was stuck going with Dell because few computer companies build with XP any more and I've read of enough problems with people using Vista. I hate using an OS that is being phased out, but Vista simply isn't as backwards compatible as it ought to be. A news program tipped me onto bradsdeals.com for coupons and there is a $200 Dell coupon for systems $750 or higher (or a $300 off coupon for $1000 or higher)--both expiring on Apr 17. While I had originally spec'd out a computer for a under $700, the coupon made it worthwhile to add a GEForce 8300 and an extra Gb of RAM for a total of $759 which the coupon drops to $559.

This isn't a screaming computer or anything, but it's pretty good for the price and will be a nice improvement over my old 550 MHz Win98 machine. Below are the specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB

The computer supports two internal hard drives. I'll be transferring over the 100 Gb drive I've got in the old computer and eventually buy a larger internal drive. Dell wanted $50 to upgrade the 250 Gb to 320 Gb or $100 to upgrade to 500 Gb. I could buy a 500 Gb drive for $86 and still have the 250 Gb drive in the computer. It's not worth upgrading through Dell.

I'll eventually pick up an extra Gb of RAM since the case has 4 DIMM slots (though dual channel might mean I have to fill both empty slots with the same RAM). I haven't had time to play the latest greatest games, so won't have any immediate need to upgrade the graphics card, but could see myself adding a card for a second monitor or swapping the GEForce out for a card that handles two monitors.

My visual indexes of Poser content are at http://www.sharecg.com/pf/rgagnon